Coyotes goalie Smith after Shaw collision: 'I'm 100 percent'

April 15, 2012|By Brian Hamilton, Tribune reporter

GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Almost an hour after another grueling overtime game ended, and after most if not all of his teammates cleared Jobing.com Arena, Mike Smith was still tucked into a Coyotes training room undergoing treatment.

It won't be the only examination with which the Coyotes netminder will be intimately involved over the next few days. The flashpoint of a 4-3 overtime loss on Saturday was a second-period collision with the Blackhawks' Andrew Shaw that had one side shrugging and one side calling for NHL action.

"The league will look at that," Coyotes coach Dave Tippett said. "Obviously that's contact to the head and it doesn't matter if it's a goaltender or a player. That's blindside contact to the head. I'm sure the league will look at it."

As Smith went behind the net to play the puck on the sequence about seven minutes into the second period, Shaw swooped in along the boards and a shoulder-to-head impact ensued.

"I went back to play the puck and I didn't see him coming," Smith said, in quotes relayed by the Coyotes. "I don't have eyes in the back of my head."

As for his condition?

"I feel fine," Smith said. "I'm 100 percent."

Still, at the time, Smith's head jerked back and he spun down to the ice, where he writhed for a few minutes as medical staff attended to him. Shaw was sent off with a five-minute major for charging and ejected with a game misconduct, while Smith would finish out the game and make 45 saves.

"He hits a goalie in the head," Coyotes captain Shane Doan said. "They want to get rid of blows to the head, period. Trust me, I know. It's a blow to our goalie's head, behind the net. I know the (general managers) have talked about how that's something they want to make sure that doesn't ever get into the game, and we have to protect our goalie. Obviously that was a no-brainer."

Added center Antoine Vermette: "It's unfortunate, you don't want to see that. The play happened quick. We want to defend our goalie, obviously he's a key component of our team. He battled, he stayed in there. Things like that sometimes happen in the playoffs, but you don't want to see it."

Now the only question is whether Shaw will have additional league discipline applied before Game 3 on Tuesday at the United Center.

As for whether that episode officially introduced some bad feelings into a series between teams without much history of bad blood, that remains to be seen.

"There are going to be lots of things in a playoff series that are going to make guys upset and get guys fired up," Doan said. "The emotions of the playoffs are pretty much there anyway. I don't think there any one thing anyone is going to do to galvanize us, but it definitely doesn't make you happy, for sure."